THE POLAR JOURNEY 353 



back after lunch, having been brought on far longer than 

 had been originally intended, for, as I have said, they were 

 to have been back at Hut Point before now, and their 

 provision allowance would not allow of further advance. 

 Perhaps we rather overestimated the dogs' capacities when 

 Bowers wrote: "The dogs are wonderfully fit and will 

 rush Meares and Dimitri back like the wind. I expect he 

 will be nearly back by Christmas, as they will do about 

 thirty miles a day." But Meares told us when we got back 

 to the hut that the dogs had by no means had an easy 

 journey home. Now, however, "with a whirl and a rush 

 they were off" on the homeward trail. I could not see them 

 (being snow-blind), but heard the familiar orders as the 

 last of our animal transport left us." 1 



Our difficulties during the next four days were in- 

 creased by the snow-blindness of half the men. The 

 evening we reached the glacier Bowers wrote : ' I am 

 afraid I am going to pay dearly for not wearing goggles 

 yesterday when piloting the ponies. My right eye has 

 gone bung, and my left one is pretty dicky. If I am in for 

 a dose of snow glare it will take three or four days to leave 

 me, and I am afraid I am in the ditch this time. It is pain- 

 ful to look at this paper, and my eyes are fairly burning 

 as if some one had thrown sand into them." And then: 

 " I have missed my journal for four days, having been 

 enduring the pains of hell with my eyes as well as doing 

 the most back-breaking work I have ever come up against. 

 ... I was as blind as a bat, and so was Keohane in my 

 team. Cherry pulled alongside me, with Crean and Keo- 

 hane behind. By sticking plaster over my glasses except 

 one small central spot I shut off most light and could see 

 the points of my ski, but the glasses were always fogged 

 with perspiration and my eyes kept on streaming water 

 which cannot be wiped off on the march as a ski stick is 

 held in each hand ; and so heavy were our weights [we 

 had now taken on the weights which had been on the dog 

 sledges] that if any of the pair slacked a hand even, the 

 sledge stopped. It was all we could do to keep the sledge 



1 Bowers. 



2 A 



